The Ancient Village of Pitigliano, Maremma (Tuscany), Italy

When I read the NY Times article about vacationing along the Tuscan coast, I was transported back to our stay in the Maremma – one of the most serene and beautiful places that we have been. Maremma has idyllic hilltop towns, fantastic food, picturesque farmhouses turned hotels, and, maybe best of all, a low rate of Italians in fast cars pushing you along the winding roads!

We really enjoyed our stay here – a week resting at our farmhouse-hotel, touring through quaint towns and even renting a sailboat to sail along the coast for the day.

We stayed in the area of Scansano at La Bell Antiglia www.labellantiglia.it; the B&B has great views, modern and comfortable rooms and the hosts, Mauro and Sabrina, treat their guests like family.

For dinner, we ate at La Cantina on Via della Botte in Scansano. This Slow Food restaurant is housed in a charming old wine cellar and has delicious food, but take it from us – only expert drivers in a Smart car should try to drive up into the town!

The wines of Maremma are really tasty and offer great values.  The red wines of the Maremma are technically known as “Super Tuscans”.  Super Tuscans is a term given to wines that include a larger concentration of “foreign”, meaning “not Sangiovese” or “not indigenous”, grapes in the blend; the cabernet sauvignon grape is the most prevalent. We profile wines from the region in our ApproachGuide to Italian Wine.

While in Italy, you might want to follow a cultural theme with ApproachGuides: Italy.